Report from Turkey: Advance the Struggle of the Working Class against Imperialist War!

The present war, in which US imperialism seeks to maintain its
hegemony, is further aggravating the current contradictions in Turkey.
Although the country is engulfed in a serious economic crisis, Turkey
is setting out to undertake new roles in the region, playing "little
brother" of the USA. The Internationalist Communists of Turkey report
on anti-war movements, and send solidarity greetings from the Turkish
workers.

The present war, in which US imperialism seeks to maintain its hegemony, is
further aggravating the current contradictions in Turkey as a result of its
geopolitical situation and socio-cultural structure. Although the country is
engulfed in a serious economic crisis, Turkey is setting out to undertake new
missions in the region, playing the role of the "little brother" of
the USA in NATO. It is trying to be involved directly in the conduct of the war
together with US, and is preparing to send troops to the hotspots.

However, to be able to take these steps in a country which is trying to get
along well with the Arab states, and which has an overwhelming Muslim
population, creates deep contradictions. The Turkish ruling class is determined
to keep everything under its control. And this amounts to nothing but stepping
up continually the severe repression which was already present.

For example, some left parties attempted to organise a big anti-war rally in
Istanbul several weeks ago. But the government raised various obstacles to avert
the rally. We must remember that every demonstration requires permission and if
a demonstration is organised without such permission, the police has every right
to attack it. And they make use of their right every time! Despite all this the
rally started off. But there were thousands of policemen in the square where the
rally was to be held. After the beginning of the rally they attacked the
demonstrators, beat them violently with truncheons, dragged them on the floors.
Many were arrested. It was quite apparent that the bourgeois government, being
engaged in a war alongside the US, was prepared to attack even the smallest
anti-war demo savagely.

When student groups in the universities attempt to organise anti-war demos
they are stopped at the very beginning by heavy-handed police attacks. The
police are always ready because they are already present in the universities.
Despite its boast to be the only so-called secular and "democratic"
republic of the Middle East, Turkey never ceases to deny the most elementary
democratic right of the working people to demonstrate, employing repression and
violence.

On the other hand, the bourgeois government, which is severely squeezed from
the economic front, makes a pretence of complying with the requests of the West
in favour of so-called democratisation. In reality, they are pretending to take
steps along these lines in order to get financial aid from the West. This
hypocritical attitude of the government has been turned into a farce. While the
bourgeois parliament, amending some anti-democratic articles in the current
constitution, is preparing an apparently more democratic constitution, the
government - under this new "democratic" constitution - is carrying on
terror against the democratic demonstrations of the workers and the progressive
youth.

Just as in the case of demonstrations on the 20th Anniversary of the
foundation of the Higher Education Council (YÖK) - still in being - which was
established in the period of military dictatorship after the September 12, 1980
military coup, for the purpose of abolishing the autonomy of the universities,
preventing the democratic acts of the academic personnel and the students, and
putting the universities under state strict control.

On November 6, the university students organised demonstrations all over
Turkey to protest against the Higher Education Council, anti-democratic measures
against the youth, increased fees, etc. The protestors were violently dispersed,
beaten by truncheons, and tear-gassed at close quarters (so that even the cops
who were enjoying themselves beating the students were affected), dragged on the
ground; and many were arrested.

Even the liberal bourgeois press reacted against this violence. For example,
the title of the news in Radikal was "Didn't we change the
constitution?" and the article went on to say: "Yesterday the police
force made their first comments on the right to demonstrate and protest, which
has been reinforced by the new amendments in the Constitution."

On the other hand the government's attacks on the use of any democratic right
have been intensified very much in war conditions. As is well known, the hunger
strikes and death fasts initiated by some political prisoners in protest against
the F-type prisons were previously attacked in a bloody operation called
"Back to Life". 32 people were killed in this operation, increasing
the number of deaths in the death fasts to 77, and many more maimed.

A few days ago the police once more carried out a violent operation, raiding
a small workers' district called Küçükarmutlu, where some people - either
prisoners released on bail or relatives of the fasting prisoners - had been on a
death fast. The police used gas bombs, automatic firearms, armoured vehicles and
bulldozers in the raid, and a house in which some people were fasting was partly
demolished by bulldozers; four were killed and ten injured, two of which are in
a dangerous condition. Using the argument that the strikes are harmful to
Turkey's image in Europe, the government doesn't want to allow anyone to go on a
hunger strike or a death fast as a political protest. By methods like these, it
wishes to bring the political prisoners and their families and other relatives
who support them "back to life"!

In Turkey there is a complete deadlock and uncertainty in politics. This
situation strengthens the role of the army which is already at the heart of the
political life of the country. The interesting point is that there is an abyss
between the contents of the showcase and reality. If you look at the showcase,
Turkey is passing the laws which the EU requires and the process of converging
with the EU is proceeding! But in reality, God knows what the future of Turkey's
relations with the EU will be. The question of Cyprus is in a complete deadlock
at the moment. The prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs have
abandoned their moderate tone.

Depending on the political developments after September 11, the government
now seems to be about to give up the aim of establishing good relations with the
EU. But the matter is more complicated than one imagines. For a long time the
Turkish bourgeoisie has been split into two wings - those who want to come
closer to Europe on the one side and those who want to undertake a
sub-imperialist role in the region as the aide of the American cowboys on the
other side.

Now the government is portraying the problem between itself and the EU as the
result of the EU's intention to accept the Greek Cypriots as the representatives
of the whole island. They pretend not to know that the reality of Cyprus has
been regarded in this way by the EU for the last 10 years! The Turkish minister
of foreign affairs, Ismail Cem, says that the Cyprus question is not going well,
and it might even be necessary to venture to break with the EU. And after that,
prime minister Ecevit said: "If they force us to, we will annex Northern
Cyprus." Against this wing, the pro-EU bourgeois circles are very angry and
they want the government to be overthrown.

TUSIAD, the organisation of the big capitalists which played a role in the
September 12 military regime - now plays the "democrat" and for the
first time in its history declares that it would support the actions of the
Labour Platform in which all the workers' unions take part. In short, as a
result of the new contradictions and conflicts of interest between the different
capitalist countries, Turkey is now being shaken to its foundations. As the
representatives of American imperialism - which is the hegemonic power of world
capitalism - declared: "This war will last a long time!"

In such a period of turmoil it would be absurd to attempt to predict the
future development of events. But one thing is obvious for the time being: that
the bourgeois government is on the side of American imperialism. Turkey's
relations with the USA and NATO are going so well that institutions like the IMF
and the World Bank are promising new credits as a reward!

But in reality, as a result of the ever-deepening economic crisis, the
labouring masses are suffering the hell of unemployment and poverty. As a result
of the last economic crisis in Turkey, the number of workers who have been
dismissed in the last year is over 1.5 million. It is now definite that the
Turkish economy will shrink by 8% by the end of 2001. Although there is a
stagnation in the economy, the inflation rate is 90% on a yearly basis. So the
Turkish economy is experiencing a second and deeper stagflation than the first
one in 1994.

Desperate bourgeois economists say: "The plight of Turkey cannot be
learned from the economics text-books." They are quite right. Not only the
crisis of Turkish capitalism, but also the crisis into which world capitalism
has been plunged at the beginning of the 21st century can only be analysed in
the light of Marxism.

About one and a half centuries ago Marx explained the direction capitalism is
going from an historical perspective. And he also said that in this historical
march of capitalism it could solve its crises only at the expense of preparing
new and deeper crises. The new millennium has opened with a deep economic
crisis, unprecedented in the history of capitalism. This crisis is so obvious
with the rising figures of unemployment, economic stagnation, incessant stock
market crises, etc, all over the world - including advanced capitalist countries
- that there is no need even to list the data.

On the other hand, the economic crises which break out in the advanced
capitalist centres, and have devastating results in the weaker capitalist
countries like Turkey are not local or accidental. On the contrary, they are
part of the crisis of the system. They have no independent character, demanding
a separate study. One can only say that they have the character of early
symptoms that announce the general course of the system. The deep financial
crises which caused a sudden collapse of the Turkish Lira broke out first in
November 2000, and later in February 2000. These were symptoms in this sense.
After that, the Turkish industrial sector plunged into an unprecedented
stagnation. The crisis of the world capitalist system has concluded the
meaningless debates as to whether this crisis is partial or accidental.

The trade unions are under pressure both from the workers below and from the
bourgeois state which does not want to tolerate even the smallest protests
because of the explosive nature of the situation. The union bureaucracy moves
only reluctantly, and when it does so, tries to hold the workers back. DISK (The
Confederation of Revolutionary Workers' Unions), which was a big union
confederation before the military coup of 1980, has now lost its power and has
become a small confederation. It was closed under the military regime and its
officials and thousands of members were arrested, and KESK (Confederation of
Public Employees' Unions) started a long march from several cities to Ankara.
The main slogan of the march was "Against unemployment, poverty, corruption
and war!" They also advanced the slogan of "Global equality, justice
and peace". The workers who participated on the march and other workers
from the biggest union confederation TURK-IS (although it did not participate in
the preceding march towards Ankara) met in Ankara on November 9 and a rally was
held with the involvement of about 30,000 workers.

The framework of union organisation in Turkey is so narrow that the
initiative of workers is hampered at the outset by various prohibitions. For
example, because of the restrictions in the union and labour laws, it is
forbidden to set up workplace type unions. A union which does not recruit at
least 10% of the workers nationally in a particular industry cannot have the
right to represent the workers, etc. The civil servants' unions which have
hundreds of thousands of members have neither the right to strike nor the right
to conduct collective bargaining.

It is necessary to break out of this narrow framework, and in order to do
this it is necessary to follow an intelligent, planned and patient way of
working. Otherwise there can never be a permanent success. Under such
conditions, as is always the case, the petit-bourgeois style of work, involving
unplanned, hasty activities aimed at getting "showy" appearances, does
not get any significant results.

The world working class is now faced with a serious economic crisis and an
open war that the imperialist powers intended to spread. Harsh and decisive days
of struggle are knocking at the door for the working class in Pakistan, a
country which is in the line of fire of the imperialist war. In such an
atmosphere, the publication of the Appeal of the Pakistan Trade Union Defence
Campaign is very important and correct in its content.

From the standpoint of the historical interests of the Turkish working class,
it is necessary to be able to establish an organisation following the example of
the vanguard sections of the Pakistani working class. We must make similar
efforts permanent. We believe that the Appeal of the vanguard Pakistani workers
will arouse feelings of class brotherhood wherever it reaches the workers in the
union branches.

In the coming period it is of crucial importance that the vanguard of the
working class in different countries pay greater attention to work in the
unions, organising various events, seminars, etc, all over the world, that will
enlighten workers concerning the imperialist war, the economic crisis of
imperialism on a world scale and the positions to be taken. The militant workers
of Turkey wholeheartedly support the Appeal of their Pakistani brothers as a
concrete indication of the fact that the working class is not alone in this
world and that we workers must believe in the future. We send our warmest
feelings of solidarity.

Long live the struggle of the workers of the world against world capitalist
order!
Long live proletarian internationalism!